380 
vast numbers of noble-minded and well- 
equipped men available for this task, 
progress would undoubtedly have been 
easier; but most men were deterred by 
the dangers and discomforts, and those 
offering their services were naturally 
of an adventurous and independent 
character. In many cases it proved to 
be a question as to whether the King of 
the Belgians could accept the responsi- 
bilities that naturally were connected 
with the services of such people, because 
positions in the Congo in those early 
periods often meant full autocratic 
power, with very little immediate con- 
trol by superior officers. In the greater 
part of what has been written however, 
about the Congo and its administration, 
these initial difficulties are overlooked 
and more criticism than praise has been 
bestowed. Men of high distinction and 
indubitably noble sentiments have en- 
rolled themselves in the campaign 
against this administration, in perfect 
good faith and in the belief that they 
were rendering a service to humanity. 
The greatest reproach — the matter 
which seemed to arouse unlimited criti- 
cism —was the collecting of rubber 
by natives in payment of their taxes, and 
the stories of the horrors connected 
therewith. There is no doubt at all 
that the sale of this rubber netted some 
very handsome financial gains, and cer- 
tainly honest criticism was much needed 
at one time in order to correct the 
methods employed by some of the 
administrative officers, who were natu- 
rally anxious to show what they consid- 
ered high ability in administrating their 
territories; or to put it correctly in just 
these faulty cases, in ruling what they 
considered their own little kingdoms. 
What was needed however was not a 
campaign against atrocities, but an 
honest effort toward improving certain 
conditions so as to induce a larger num- 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
ber of men of a higher type to live in 
the Congo. These might have devoted 
themselves actively to civilizing efforts, 
and by their very presence a change 
in defective conditions would have been 
brought about without causing embitter- 
ment. As a matter of fact, if the well- 
being and civilization of the natives alone 
are to be considered as the ultimate 
object of conquest, there are few portions 
of Africa which have a higher record 
for truly remarkable advance than the 
Belgian Congo itself; but the impetu- 
osity of the unfortunate campaign of the 
reformers is responsible for producing 
a number of laws of such great leniency 
that the strong and successfully guiding 
hand is often stayed by mappropriate 
measures, which positively injure the 
general welfare of the natives. Some of 
these laws actually seem systematically 
to encourage degradation by openly en- 
couraging idleness, although the negro 
would be perfectly willing to contribute 
his share to the progress and elevation 
of his race, which will probably never be 
attained except by giving him a fair 
chance for useful work and by estab- 
lishing correct compensation. 
This unsatisfactory legislation indeed, 
seems to have been the chief result 
achieved by the agitators, whereas if we 
consider the Belgian Congo as a whole, 
with a view to determining what great 
reforms have benefited the natives, we 
find that it is to the Belgian govern- 
ment that they are essentially due. 
The natives of the Congo like meat, 
and from all we saw they enjoy a mar- 
velous digestion. They have been called 
by opponents of the government “poor 
defenseless children.” As a matter of 
fact there were eleven millions of canni- 
bals, who in a single day probably killed 
for mere food purposes more of their un- 
fortunate fellow-men than the number 
laid by these critics at the doors of all 
